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“SELMA” wins big at the NAACP Image Awards
The civil rights drama “Selma” won top honors at the NAACP Image Awards in a ceremony that took sharp notice of snubs of African American artists and their work by the Oscars.
“This is more than a movie,” Oprah Winfrey, who was a “Selma” producer and appeared in it, said Friday in accepting the trophy for outstanding motion picture. “It is important that we all know who we are so we know where we are going, and claiming the glory.”
“Selma,” which dramatizes events surrounding the 1965 Alabama voting rights marches led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., also captured best actor honors for David Oyelowo, who played King.
“I want to take this opportunity to say I thank the Lord I was able to play one of the most transcendent human beings who ever walked the planet,” Oyelowo said.
Awards host Anthony Anderson, the “black-ish” star whose freshman ABC sitcom was a big TV winner Friday, opened the night with a jab at the Academy Awards, which this year has an all-white slate of acting nominees.
The critically acclaimed “Selma,” although a best-picture and best-song nominee at the February 22 Oscars, failed to garner bids for Oyelowo or director Ava DuVernay. In January, it received a Golden Globe award for best song.
“People are up in arms because they feel the other award shows have snubbed us. So what. We have got our own show, right?” Anderson said. He then launched into a number that included the lyrics: “Writing, directing, no respect from this city,” and a refrain, “Forget the Oscars, hallelujah,” the Emmys and Golden Globes.
Taraji P. Henson was a double winner: she was named best actress in a movie for “No Good Deed” and entertainer of the year. Henson, star of the new Fox midseason hit “Empire, is enjoying an especially good 2015.
